


Hour of Dawn

by SkyLeaf



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotions, Established Relationship, F/F, Forehead Kisses, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-Twilight Princess, Responsibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24340828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyLeaf/pseuds/SkyLeaf
Summary: They had left the fleeting shadows of dusk, but two hearts could still be as one in the golden hues of dawn.
Relationships: Midna/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Hour of Dawn

Midna woke up halfway through the fleeting hour that separated night from day, heart beating rapidly after fighting her way out from yet another nightmare, only for the calming warmth of Zelda lying next to her, their legs tangled together, and the weight of Zelda having slung her arm around her to pull her back to reality. It was not real, not anymore.

Still, Midna couldn’t help but hold her breath as she listened for the familiar sound of Zelda’s heart beating along to the same rhythm as her own. Zelda’s hair fell over her face as Midna shifted around to press her ear to her chest, staring out into the darkness of the room while she waited for the proof that they were safe. In her mind, she could still see the sadness flicker over Zelda’s face, etched into her features, as she had faded into the night.

Shaking her head, Midna tried her best to will the picture to disappear again, to be pushed back into dark corner of her mind she had banished so many memories to over those last few years, but no matter how many times she reminded herself that it was over, it returned each and every time.

Zelda, suspended in thin air, lifeless and defenceless as Ganondorf taunted Midna until she could no longer keep his attention and he turned towards Zelda instead. The way his magic had flown through the air, straight past her, and hit its mark. Midna had tried her best to stop it, and it had still not been enough. When Midna had looked up at her, she had still seen Zelda, even as the lines spread over her face and she opened her eyes to show that they were no longer her own.

Zelda, who had jumped to her feet, already ready to defend her kingdom the first time she had seen Midna, who, in return, already had a quip ready about the state Hyrule was in.

But that was in the past, and although it the progress of it was slow, Midna knew that they were both getting better, even if she would still from time to time wake up to see Zelda squirming in her sleep, fending off some invisible enemy from her nightmares that only she could see.

Almost like she could feel Midna’s worries seeping into the air next to her, Zelda began to stir, bringing her hands up to rub her eyes before she blinked slowly, a smile forming as she looked over at Midna. Her hair fanned out, covering the pillow beneath her.

“Awake already?” she asked, her voice still slightly muffled as she yawned, rolling over to dig her elbow into the mattress and push herself up.

For a moment, Midna hesitated, unsure of what to tell her to answer the question. She could tell how this would end, simply from how many times they had already gone through this dance, one of them waking up, bathed in sweat, to spend the rest of the night trying to whisper words of encouragement to each other until the nightmares finally left them alone for long enough to let them relax once more.

Still, even though she knew that in just a few hours, Zelda would have to be ready to face the court, Midna could admit that lying, even if she did it for Zelda’s sake, would only end up making things worse. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “Yes.”

“Nightmare?”

Only one word, and yet Zelda had been able to guess exactly what was wrong. Granted, given how many times that had been the answer, Midna supposed that it might have been obvious from the very second her uneven breathing had first woken up Zelda what had been the reason for Midna being awake so early, but she was still grateful for not having to spend time so early in the morning attempting to piece the words together to explain what was wrong.

“Yes,” she breathed, hesitating for a second before adding, “it was a nightmare.”

“Was it something you want to talk about?” Zelda raised an eyebrow, reaching out to throw her arm around Midna, rubbing circles into the small space between her shoulder blades.

“I think so,” Midna decided, her voice trembling slightly as she tried to recall the details of the dream. Thankfully, it had already grown fussy around the edges, and she found herself unable to remember anything other than the overall feeling that had haunted her through the dream. But even that was enough for her stomach to turn. She found herself moving closer to Zelda, her instincts telling her that simply knowing that she was right there next to her would be enough to chase the feelings away.

The warmth that followed as Zelda pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead would have been enough to melt the snow on even the coldest mountain.

“Whenever you are ready, I will be right here.”

“Even if the story ends up taking hours to explain?” Midna teased her, and even though the words sounded flat the second they had left her mouth, she continued, determined to see the worried expression on Zelda’s face have to make way for a happier one. “Are you really saying that you would let the court wait?”

“For you, I would let anyone wait.”

Her breath stopped for a moment as her Midna’s heart skipped a beat. She could have sworn that Zelda was doing it on purpose, knowing exactly which words to use. But then she found herself looking into Zelda’s eyes and realised that, no, Zelda really had just said exactly what she thought about the situation. And, by extension, Midna as well.

Perhaps that feeling was why she found herself able to continue, using her hand to finish her sentences when she found that she had no more words to use. “I dreamt that we were in the throne room again.” Midna did not have to look at Zelda to know that that fact alone had been enough for Zelda to know exactly what her nightmare had been about. “It was exactly how it was the—the last time I was there, only, this time, I was not able to do anything at all.”

Zelda reacted the moment Midna’s voice broke, reaching out to run her fingers through Midna’s hair.

“But you did. You and Link both, you were there and you managed to save everyone, myself included.”

“Yes, I know, but it was nothing but pure luck that made us able to do that. If anything had gone wrong, if we had not been able to make our way up to the room in the first place—” she couldn’t continue. There was simply no way she would be able to finish the sentence. Although Midna knew exactly the feelings that had overwhelmed her during her nightmare could be described as, it felt like every attempt of putting it into words ended with the sounds dying on her tongue, long before she could have told Zelda.

Still, there was no need for her to do so. Zelda seemed to already know how the story had ended in Midna’s dreams, and she tightened the embrace. “It was only a dream. I promise you, Midna, I am fine. Hyrule was saved, and so was I.”

There was something almost mesmerising about how Zelda was able to know exactly how to combine the words, crafting sentences that were able to allow Midna to relax after having woken up from a nightmare, and although her heart was still beating fast, so fast that Midna could almost not believe that Zelda had not commented on it already, she found herself melting into the embrace. But even as she noted how some of the effects of the nightmare were growing fainter, Midna could still not let go of the feeling of being only a small mistake, a minor moment of oversight, away from seeing everything she had fought for slip away from her once more.

Although she did her best to force her lips to form a copy of the smile Zelda was sending her, Midna knew that Zelda had heard the low sigh from the way she drew her eyebrows together.

“I know that it might not help right now,” Zelda began, murmuring into her hair, “but I promise you that everything is fine.”

There had never been a time when Zelda had lied to her. Not about something like this at least. Even when Midna had first found her, locked away in her own castle, Zelda had had a habit of telling the truth, despite how Midna could see that it would have been wiser to stay silent, both refusing to tell a lie, but also keeping the truth and the full extent of her knowledge to herself, and she knew that Zelda would not begin lying to her now. But despite how that should have brought her peace, it only made her grow even more worried. It was all too good. Everything around her, the life she had created with Zelda, the way the Mirror of Twilight was now guarded carefully, unable to become a way to abuse the connection between their realms anymore, how they had finally been able to banish Ganondorf, Link having returned to Ordon Village not long after with the words that now that there was no longer any need for his services, he longed for his own home, felt like it should not be able to be more than a dream, something fleeting that would, sooner or later, have to disappear to leave Midna all alone again.

“And what about the next time?” Midna asked. Despite how she had been able to snarl when faced with Zant, had placed herself between Ganondorf and Zelda, the thought of it all repeating again was enough to turn her voice into a whisper, all strength gone in an instant.

“The next time?”

“Yes, the next time.” when Zelda stayed silent, prompting her to explain with a long glance, Midna continued. “We both know that this is not the end of this. Although we might have defeated Ganondorf for now, as long as the mirror is still here, there will always be a risk of something happening, and once it does, it will affect not only one realm, but both of them.”

Really, she should have destroyed the mirror. It would have been the responsible thing to do, the thing a queen should have been ready to sacrifice without hesitation. But Midna had been selfish, and when the moment for her to return home to begin the task of rebuilding everything that had been broken, she had lacked the courage, the selflessness, to do what she had to. She had not been able to fulfil her duties, choosing to leave the mirror intact as she passed from one realm to another.

It seemed that Zelda was wondering the same thing as her, for her gaze turned worried, a faint pull around her lips that Midna had seen so often when she had gotten the chance to observe Zelda as she stood in front of the court, indicating that Zelda was doing her best to force back her feelings rather than letting them control her.

Coughing once, Zelda looked at her, pain apparent on her face. “If you had the chance to go back and change the decision you made that day would you do it? Would you have destroyed the mirror?”

Midna did not know what to answer. Rationally, she knew that Zelda would understand that, as a queen, someone who had responsibilities not only towards herself but an entire kingdom, the only answer she could possibly give to the question would be a yes, to assure Zelda that, as much as she loved her, loved waking up in the morning to find that the two of them had turned into a tangle of limps during the night, that Zelda’s face was the first thing she saw in the morning, as much as she treasured every moment she was able to get together with her, her kingdom had to come before her personal happiness. It would be the correct answer, the kind of self-sacrifice that would be expected from a queen, an ideal Zelda had also been told to strive towards her entire life. But she simply could not say it. It had nothing to do with the fact that she knew that, no matter how Zelda would be able to understand her, it would still hurt. Midna’s inability to answer the question by giving the correct answer was due to nothing but the fact that it would not have been true if she forced herself to say it.

So, rather than attempting to lie to Zelda, Midna shook her head. “No. I was not able to do it then when I had only just begun to catch glimpses of the real you, and now, I know for certain that I would never be able to.” the words warmed, and not only because they had caused Zelda to beam at her. No, it simply felt right to admit the truth, that, even though it was selfish of her, Midna would never give up the life she had found.

“The real me?” Zelda repeated with a low chuckle. “I would be lying if I said that I have not already heard that line before, but I feel like you are the only one who has ever said that who was not also lying for the entirety of our conversation.”

Midna could feel her lips curling upwards, forming something that might have been fit for the description of a smile, and as she pressed her forehead against Zelda’s, she had to focus to ignore the feeling of butterflies in her stomach to instead make sure she was able to get out the words. “And I mean it. When I first saw you, I was too angry and miserable to really see you. So I only saw a princess who, despite having been handed everything, still could not see how everything around her was a sign of how the goddesses had always been there to protect her. I suppose it continued like that for the longest time. Of course it slowly began to change, but I don’t think I really noticed it until you—” she gestured towards the space between them, hoping that Zelda would be able to understand what she meant even as the words failed her, Midna finding herself unable to find the right way to describe how she had felt in the moment, “until you sacrificed yourself to give Link and I another chance. It was not until then that I truly began to realise that I would not be able to do what was expected of me and remove the path between our realms.”

She was grateful that Zelda did not comment on the fact that Midna had to blink rapidly to keep the tears from spilling.

Instead, Zelda responded by humming faintly, continuing to let her thumb move in a circular path over Midna’s shoulder as she began speaking. “I remember that, how I was, for a moment, able to feel what you felt.” she looked up at Midna, and, even as Midna had to fight against the tears, she could not ignore the bubbling feeling of joy spreading through her body as Zelda’s smile drove away the cold night air that still clung to the corners of the room. “I had expected so much more anger, but there was barely any. Still, I hope you know that I did not only sacrifice myself to give you and Link a second chance to succeed.”

It felt like someone had told her that the sky was a solid surface to hear Zelda admit something like that. All this time, Midna had thought back to the incident, remembering the way Zelda had, without hesitation, allowed herself to fade away so that Midna could live, doing exactly what had been expected of her.

“You didn’t?”

“No, goddesses, no. I know I should have done it for the reasons you might be thinking about, that I had been ready to selflessly sacrifice myself to save those around me, but to tell you the truth, I did it for you.”

Even as Zelda paused, and the tiny part of her that was still able to function after that revelation, noted that Zelda might be waiting for her to respond, Midna found herself unable to do anything but stare at Zelda as her brain tried its best to make sense of what she had just said. But there was no part of it that she was able to understand. Granted, if their situations had been reversed, Midna knew that she would have done the same in a heartbeat, but that was also quite different. At that point, Midna had given Zelda no reason to want to risk everything like she had done when she had given Midna another chance, having spent most of her time either insulting Zelda or reminding her of the sorry state of her kingdom.

When Midna remained silent, Zelda eventually appeared to understand that she would not be able to say anything just yet, for she continued, making sure to look directly into her eyes with an intensity Midna had only ever seen in Zelda as she spoke. “When Link brought you into the tower, I already knew that it would be the only way for me to do something, but even then, I hoped that you would reveal that you already had a plan and that I would be able to stay with you for just a few minutes longer.”

“But I did not have a plan,” Midna finished for her, recalling the way the coldness from the floor had seeped into her, draining her of her very last bit of strength, as she had laid there, barely able to move, “at least not something that would have been able to save me.”

“No, and although I know that the mirror is important, I have to say that if I really had been forced to choose between being able to accompany Link on his quest to find it and saving you, I still have my doubts about whether or not I would have been able to make the choice that would have been the best for those around me, because in that moment, although I would love to say that I was able to remain calm about it, all that mattered was the fact that one of the light spirits that had been meant to protect us might be the thing to kill you.”

Zelda’s voice broke halfway through the last word, and maybe it was that slight imperfection that made Midna able to, for a moment, forget about the shock of hearing her own doubts about her ability to be selfless to protect her kingdom mirrored back at her by Zelda, to instead shake her head, reaching up to caress Zelda’s face.

“Then let us be grateful that neither of us had to make that choice.”

The confident tone in her words took them both by surprise, Zelda blinking once, then twice, as she looked back up at her, a smile spreading across her face.

“You are right. Let us be grateful for that,” she agreed, and as Zelda shifted next to her, rolling over and pulling Midna along with her, Midna was quick to respond, soon lying with her head on top of Zelda’s chest, letting the sound of Zelda’s heartbeat dispel the last of her worries.

A stray sunbeam that had somehow managed to make its way through the heavy curtains and into their bedchambers fell over Zelda’s face, painting her hair in varying shades of brilliant browns, reds, and copper. She almost seemed to glow in the sunlight as her breathing grew slower once again, Midna waiting for a moment longer to ensure that Zelda really was asleep again before she allowed herself to relax as well, finally letting rest overcome her.

Outside, the sun rose, climbing along the walls of the castle as it gradually made its way across the sky, and for once, both Zelda and Midna were there to feel the warmth of its rays.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this fanfiction! If you want to talk about how romantic that line about their hearts being as one was, you can find me on [Tumblr](https://theseventhsage.tumblr.com/)


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